McDermot, Kayla

USS Drake
Kayla McDermot
Gender: Female Position: Science Officer Rank: Ensign Current Ship: USS Drake Race: Human Edit this nav

Ensign Kayla McDermot, human, is currently a science officer aboard the USS Drake.

Stats

• Full Name: Kayla Ann McDermot
• Date of Birth: July 7th
  • Age: 29
• Place of Birth: Earth (Ontario, Canada)
• Languages Spoken: Federation Standard (English), French, Latin and Vulcan
• Telepathic status: N/A

Appearance

Kayla is slightly above average height and about ten pounds underweight for her size. She claims to have "midget legs." In actuallaty her legs are slightly shorter then normal (this earned her the nickname of "Hoppity" throughout High School, a nickname in which she hates). She has an athletic build, something she owes to her love of swimming and scuba diving.

• Height: 1.70m (5'7")
• Weight: 57Kg (126 lbs)
• Hair Color: Red-brown
• Eye Color: Brown

Family

• Spouse: None
• Children: None
• Parents
  • Father: Trevor McDermot, Planner for the Beaureau of Colonial Affairs
  • Mother: Jennifer McDermot, R.N with the Ontario General Hospital
• Siblings:
  • Sister: Trisha McDermot, Aspiring Actress

Personality

Kayla suffers from severe social anxiety. It manifests itself in extreme shyness, making her appear to be soft spoken. She has trouble when in groups making eye contact for very long or from even accepting compliments. When situations get tense she has a habbit of acting without emotions which can be a double edged sword.

She has a very hard time in forming lasting social relationships outside of work, Her academic advisor strongly urged her to take advantage of off duty time and develop who she is rather then what she is. Its something she has resisted, Her counselor and Doctor have put her on social anxiety medication in order to help her get past her fear of groups. It has had very mixed results.

Traits

• Intellect: Kayla is brilliant almost to the point of near genius level. She thrives on being able to have the right answer almost all of the time.

• Self Conscious: Kayla was born being rather attractive. But she does everything in her power to hide the fact. She seems to be ashamed of the way she looks. Feeling like her figure is something to be hidden. She hides it mostly behind an oversized Starfleet issued labcoat when she is in the science labs, when she is on duty she wears a uniform one size too big for herself.

• Arrogant: She doesn't like to be told she is wrong, this often makes her come across as smug or arrogant. She has a hard time grasping the idea that she could be wrong particularly where astrophysics is concerned. If something does not act like the way it is supossed to act in the textbook or simulation she will claim that the object "Did not operate within the field of normal stellar dynamics". This also leads to her not being able to admit to being wrong, Perhaps less correct then usual but she can never be wrong.

• Social Anxiety Disorder: Kayla has a hard time functioning when it comes to Social functions or large groups. Usually she takes medication to combat this, but even then she can feel overwhelmed when part of a group. She tends to not take leadership roles when she can help it. Much prefering to simply be a part of a team.

• Addiction to caffeine: She is firmly addicted to the stubstance due to late night cramming sessions. She will have coffee with her breakfast, an iced coffee with lunch and a cup of tea with supper. When she has to go without she suffers from terrible headaches.

• Insomnia: Due to her large intake of caffeine she has trouble sleeping. This will have her spend off duty time exploring the ship. She usually gets four hours of sleep a night.

Likes

• Favorite Food: Sesame tofu

• Favorite Beverage: Coffee

• Favorite Novel: The Danger Jane Series by G'grosh Svenflord (she still reads the holonovels and watches the show)

• Favorite Song: Moon Over Andor by T’hokal H’zrat

History

Childhood

Kayla McDermot was born the eldest of two children on July 7th, 2368. She was born in Ontario,Canada the daughter of a low level beaurcrat and a Nurse. While growing up she was an avid follower of the Danger Jane holovids. She wanted to be an Adventurering Socialite while growing up. Sadly she was born in a city that had been explored in a place long established as being boring and polite. So she did what she thought any person in her situation would do. She repressed her feelings and did her best to try to get out of the town. From the age of ten she buckled down and did schoolwork always pushing herself to overachieve. To the point where she would self inflict forms of punishment on herself when she did not acieve. She got a B, she would not let herself eat sweets, She got a C once and she saved off her hair. This unsettled her parents. But after explaining to them her methods, they did not punish her or even send her to help, they just let her progress. Kayla let all of this continue sacrificing a social life in order to educate herself. When she was in the Eighth grade she read at a college level. By the time she entered high school she could quote you all the laws of physics but had yet to do things a normal child would have done such as have a kiss or a first date, She didn't even have any friends. She was finally forced to devote time to extra ciricular actvities when she was a teenager.

She was diagnosed with Social Anxiety Disorder (Something which she still takes medication for to this day.) She choose to be in the High School Band. She learned to play the violin, an instrument she secret hates to play because she sees it as her biggest waste of time, But did it to appease her parents and her Counselor who all firmly believed she needed an outlet. She seemed to be the perfect person on paper. She graduated Valedictorian from James Benson the III High School in Ottawa,Canada.

At her graduation she was to make a speech, She studdered and stammered through the speech, Discovering that her anxiety runs very, very deep. This depressed her and it also led to an incident that would eventually change her life. She started to send out applications to many colleges and even submitted an application to Starfleet Academy with dreams of going to the famous Vulcan Science Academy.

Academy

What led to Kayla's eventual acceptence into Starfleet Academy was the week after graduating High school Kayla had been accepted into the Univeristy of Berkley in California. She was very happy that the school had accepted her and was in fact going to give her a full Scholarship. She had packed up, gotten ready to make the big move to the San Francisco bay area. She had even managed to secure herself a job at a resturant. Her first night in the city led her to meet a Professor at the Academy and over coffee on Telegraph Ave. They discussed intellect and talent and he convinced her that she was simply wasting her intelligence by going to a provincial univeristy and then being a researcher, when She could become part of something much more grand then her. She would get to see the universe and maybe have an adventure or two. That was more then enough she signed up to attend Starfleet and dropped out of UC Berkley.

She passed the written and verbal entrence test with flying colors. Her scenario test she passed, she figured out she was in a Holodeck simulation and explained to the characters that they were indeed part of a simulation. She argued that in order for them to continue to function properly they had to let her pass based on the Laws of Artifical Life forms. The Proctor of the exams felt she obeyed the letter of the exam, not the spirit in which it was intended, He made a note in her file about that. She was accepted onwards none the less.

She was assigned to a squad which called themselves Orange Squad, Most of them were would be Science Officers and Engineers. She avoided making very many friends or attending social functions prefering to keep to herself. She once again put herself in the forceful position of overachieving. Her problem was she was in an Academy full of others who liked to do the same thing. She found it frustrating, even worse she had nobody to open up to. In her Sophmore year she adopted a cat she named Shrodinger. To this day she keeps the cat and talks to him about anything and everything. A trait she has realized is illogical but her lack of social skills and desire to seperate herself keep her from genuinely making friends.

One of her instructors eventually noticed that she was in fact antisocial and forced her to attend a Counseling Session that Student Services offered. She co-operated fully with the session and answered each question as if she was an Anthropologist observing her own life. She was imediatly put on a dose of Alprazolam. She reluctantly agreed to take the drug.

It allowed her to participate more actively within Study groups and even let her take up playing the Violin again in the Academy orchestra. It was during that elective that she met a fellow Cadet named Jane Worthington. Jane did everything she could to wear down Kayla's antisocial walls. It took her six months of constant talking, rejected coffee talks and general social attempts before she got through. Kayla agreed to start returning social platitudes and greetings, that led to coffee and Kayla's eventual friendship. Something Kayla fiercely refers to as "Social Platitudes and Interaction."

She spent ten years attending Starfleet Academy, she has a Doctorate in Temporal Mechanics with a Minor in Quantum Mechanics. She is extremely book smart and she looks exceptional on paper, the second she is pushed into a bit of social interaction she becomes completely locked down. Getting to know her is not an impossible task, it just requires alot of effort that most folks aren't willing to put in.

Timeline

• 2358: (born)
• 2376: Graduated Primary School
• 2376-2380: Attended Starfleet Academy
• 2380-2382: Attended Starfleet Sciences Advanced Training
• 2392-2384: Manhiem Research Center Internship
• 2385: Cadet Cruise USS Oregon
• 2386: Final Training Mission and First Assignment.